Suspect in stabbing at Staten Island's Curtis High School cites threats over drug deal

View full sizePolice cars stand near Curtis High School after 2 students were injured by a third in a knife fight October 18, 2011. (Staten Island Advance )

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A prior drug deal gone sour may have played a role in a stabbing at Curtis High School Tuesday that left two teens wounded and a third arrested, according to a law enforcement source.

Larry Adeyanju, 16, of the 300 block of Westervelt Avenue, told police he smuggled a switchblade into school under his sweater on Tuesday because one of the victims had threatened him before over a drug deal, the source said.

Adeyanju was arraigned yesterday in Stapleton Criminal court on charges of first- and second-degree assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, and was ordered held on $100,000 bail, said Peter N. Spencer, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

Adeyanju and his alleged victims live under the same roof, in a community residence, sources said. The victims are stepbrothers — a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed in the chest, stomach and groin, and an 18-year-old who was stabbed in the arm, according to authorities.

Adeyanju told police he spotted one of the victims — the one who he said had “come at him before” — in the stairwell, and attacked, and the victim’s stepbrother soon joined the fray, the law enforcement source recounted.

A surveillance camera at the school recorded the attack, according to court papers.